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Read moreSideways disinheritance
Sideways disinheritance. Its a phrase you may well have not heard before, but when I describe the phenomenon I often find my clients know someone in their circle of family or friends who has, directly or indirectly, experienced it.
But what is it?
Lets imagine a scenario. John and Jane are happily married and have two children, Sam and Sally. John and Jane have sensibly written simple wills leaving everything to one another on first death and then down to the children equally on second death. Sadly John unexpectedly passes away and as per the Will the estate passes to Jane.
A few years later Jane meets Adam, falls in love and remarries.
Marriage invalidates a Will, and she never gets round to writing a Will with new husband Adam. Jane passes away, and now according to the rules of intestacy her estate that she built up with John now passes to Adam, and not John’s children Sam and Sally.
This is sideways disinheritance.
Many of us have stories of this, a lot of us worry about this occurring maliciously but its all to easy for this to occur by accident too. So how do you protect from it?
There are a few options. You could set up a lifetime trust and pass your assets into this in your lifetime, protecting your assets from all sorts of outside influence for generations to come.
Or you could write in-will trusts that will put your assets into trust on your death and protect them for your nominated beneficiaries giving the lifetime benefit to your spouse should they survive you.
The option you take will depend on what is right for you, your family, and your priorities and you need an estate planner who can talk you through all of these options and work out what is best for you.
You know you should write your will. Your family have been on at you for an age to get around to it. But somehow it just keeps getting pushed to.
Read moreOur most asked question at the moment seems to be "Have you heard about Kate Garraway?" and yes, sadly we have. We really feel for Kate, its an extremely difficult.
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